Middle East

Common Dreams by Medea Benjamin A war-weary American public that a year ago resoundingly rejected US military intervention in Syria to overthrow the Assad regime now is rallying behind the use of force to destroy the so-called Islamic State (ISIS). In just three months, from June to September, support for US airstrikes in Iraq soared from 45% percent to 71%, and to 65% for airstrikes in Syria. How did such an astounding turnabout occur? Certainly it wasn’t due to the persuasive powers of President Obama, who seems to have been reluctantly dragged into a conflict that he once acknowledged has…

by Justine Mccabe Litchfield County Times Friday, August 01, 2014 I’m responding at length to letters of Messrs. Wilkins and Kilchevsky, who expressed similar views opposing my 7/11 letter, “Decolonization” and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. They both deny my claims: That Israel was founded by the same national formative act as the U.S.: ethnic cleansing of the majority native inhabitants; and That Israel practices apartheid within both Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). As a scholar, who has worked in the Navajo Indian Medical Center and Navajo reservation, as well as in the Middle East (Lebanon, Iran and the OPT),…

Common Dreams by Pat LaMarche “My fellow Americans, for nearly seven decades, the United States has been the anchor of global security. This has meant doing more than forging international agreements — it has meant enforcing them. The burdens of leadership are often heavy, but the world is a better place because we have borne them.” Of the thousands of words the president said in last night’s televised speech to the nation on Syria, these 75 words are the most important. No man with such a fundamental misunderstanding of modern American history should be deciding the fate of a new…

by Mark A. Dunlea Every year on the anniversary of 9/11, I have written an op ed reflecting on the horrors of that day and on the still many unanswered questions. And the lack of justice for those that were murdered. This year’s anniversary is especially jarring because President Obama wants to bomb Syria – over their alleged use of chemical weapons – the type of weapons we couldn’t find after we invaded Iraq over 9/11. Obama also wants to send a variety of messages: that he is tough enough to enforce his redline; that he wants to break the…

by Carl Romanelli Originally published by the Wilkes-Barre Independent Gazette As the Republicans were wending through their convention, and the Democrats were preparing for theirs, yet another horrid court decision was handed down. No, it was not the US Supreme Court appointing a president, as was the case in December of 2000. It was not a Pennsylvania court jailing kids for cash, but just as reprehensible. Instead, this decision came from an Israeli court in Jerusalem, but it has wrenching implications here in the US. The decision was a denial in the civil suit filed for the wrongful murder of 23-year…